Car coupler



July 17, 1923- I v 1,462,190

H. M. BROWN CAR COUPLER Filed 001;. 20, 1922 FIEJI. a

Qv mm Patented July 17, 1923.,

UNITED/STATES HARRY'M. BROWN, OF NEW KENSING'ION, PENNSYLVANIA.

OAR COUPLER.

Application filed October 20, 1922. Serial No. '95,771.

T0 allaohom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HARRY M. BROWN, residing at New Kensington, in the county of \Vestmoreland and State of Pennsylvania, a citizen of the United States, have invented or discovered certain new and useful Improvements in Car Couplers, of which improvements the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in car couplings and is applicable particularly to the couplings of cars used in coal mines. The object is to facilitate the handling of cars, particularly in connection with emptying of cars at a tipple.

In Letters Patent of the United States No. 1,429,186, granted me September 12, 1922, I have shown and described a coupler for mine carsparticularly adapted to meet conditions in dumping. The coupling there disclosed includes complementary parts car ried by the adjacent ends of meeting cars, one of these parts is a coupler head having a pivoted hook, the other is essentially a link. The invention of the patent alluded to concerns particularly the coupler head; the invention which I shall here describe and claim concerns particularly the link.

This link portion of the coupling device may of course be used incombinationwith either such a coupler head as that shown in my already granted patent, or in, combina- .tion with a complementary portion of any other suitable form.

My present invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Fig. I is a view in perspective of thelink portion of a coupling, and in this link portion my present invention is embodied. Figs. II and III illustrate in perspective certain parts detached. Fig. IV is a plan view of a track and cars upon it, the cars being equipped with couplings of my invention and the track being adapted to effect proper operation. The scale to which Fig. IV is drawn is of course smaller than that of the other figures.

In the specification of my earlier patent I characterized the structure which, secured to the frame of the car, carries the coupling link, as consisting essentially of a vertically standing clevis, I described the link as modified from the simple and familiar form by having formed at one end an eye and I described a spring, Whose purpose was to sustain the link against drooping, and to cause it to extend always in a horizontal plane. These features modified in detail I retain in the structure in which my present invention is embodied. I Y

Referring to Fig. I, the clevis is found in a casting or forging 1 and a strap like plate 2. The member 1 is shaped to face the car sill, and overlap it above and below, and, being bolted to the sill, to constitute a plate for sustaining the stresses of bumping and pushing, as the cars are forced together in coupling or in backing trains. The plate 2 also is bolted to the framework of the car, it overhangs with a spacebetween the upper plate of the member 1, and therein affords the characteristic feature of a clevis. Of course, as explained in my patent alluded to, this clevis member or either portion of it may extend rearwardly from one end of, the car to the other and be integrated with the coupling structure at the remote end of the car. v r

The link member 3, shown in plan Fig. II is essentially the same as the link member described in my prior patent specification, in that it possesses this modification from the simple and typical link: one end is prolonged beyond the end of the principal link opening and in this prolongation a separate opening is formed for the pin which unites it'to the coupling structure which here is particularly shown. This second opening through the link, marked a in II, is particularly shaped with opposite parallel sides carefully spaced apart, for purposes to be described.

The link pinned to the coupling structure as shown in Fig. I is heldextended in horizontal plane by a spring. backed plate 4. As shown in Fig. I this plate bears upon the link from above and holds it pressed against member 1; manifestly it might be arranged below and press the link upwardly against 2 member 2; but it is better to have the unyieldlng support beneath.

The pin 5 which secures the link to the coupling structure turns freely in the two parts 1 and 2 of the coupling structure, but the link when secured by it has no turning movement independently, but turns only as the pin turns witliinthe coupling structure. To this end the shank of the pin is at its upper end flattened on opposite sides, as indicated inFig. III and the position and proportion of this flattened portion are such that when the parts are assembled the flattened portion extends within and closely fills I upon the end of the pin extending oppositely approaches a tipple.

' inward. This turned end of pin 5 is adapted to cooperate with guide plates is properly arranged on the track structure over which the car equipped with this coupling runs, to the end that as a car with coupling link turned aside, but free to turn, passes over, the link will by engagement of guide plates 6 with the elbowed end of pin 5, turn the pin and swing the link to central protruding position, ready for coupling.

Referring particularly to Fig. IV, and understanding that a car is advancing in the direction of the arrow from the first position there illustrated to the second, and noting that the link which the free end of the car carries is in the first position swung aside, it will be perceived that as the car advances to the second position, the link 3 will automatically be swung by the instrumentalities described to the medial position ready for coupling as shown by the car in the second position in Fig. IV.

The purpose and value of this will readily be understood. A loaded train of mine cars The cars are uncoupled, and the links 3 are swung aside to the position shown by the first of the succession of cars in Fig. IV. The locomotive from the remote end of the train pushes the so uncoupled cars one by one over the brink of the incline which leads to the tipple, and the cars then run one by one down the incline to the tipple. They there are turned from, and then are restored to normal horizontal position. And here the necessity that the car shall at the time be disconnected from the train is apparent. As the empty car restored to normal position travels on down the incline beyond the tipple, properly set plates 6 automatically bring its coupling link 3 to coupling position, and so a train of empties may be made up on the tracks beyond the tipple with greatest expedition.

It will be perceived of link 3 that during the dumping of the car it is swung aside, and in such position allows the cars to be dumped separately, and, more than that, in such swung aside position it is out of the Way, where it dumping be from the end where it is found, it will not be injured by the falling stream of coal.

The invention is applicable not to mine cars alone, where its advantages are such as have been pointed out, but to railway cars generally.

I claim as my invention: a

1. In a car coupling the combination of a coupling head, a pin pivoted in the head and having an elbowed end, a link secured by the pin and swinging integrally with the pin, and a guide plate stationary with respect to the car and adapted as the car travels to engage the elbowed end of the pin and swing the link.

2. In a railway installation a track, a car movable on the track, a coupling head, a pin pivoted in the head and a link secured to the pin and rotatable in unison with the pin, and a guide plate stationary with respect to y the track and adapted as the car advances on the track to effect rotation of the pin.

3. In a car coupler a clevis-like coupling head, a coupling link adapted to be secured in the clevis head through an orifice with opposite parallel walls, a pin adapted to secure the link in the head, said pin being rotatable in the head, being provided with a flat sided shank adapted to engage the parallel-walled orifice in the link, and being further provided with an elbowed end, and a stationary guide plate adapted as the car travels to engage the elbowed end of the coupling pin and effect rotation of the pin.

In testimony whereof I-have hereunto set my hand.

HARRY M. BROWN. Vitnesses PERCY A. ENGLISH, FRIEDA E. WoLrr. 

